Do I really have to upgrade to D365?

Probably time for a slight change of topic. Today's topic isn't focused on System Performance but don't despair it's bound to come up at some point. This discussion is going to be about upgrading to D365 and the reasons that compel you to do so. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of D365, the features, the ease of both implementation and maintenance, the simplicity of integrating into the purely Digital Space. I could go on but a number of these positives will come up in this discussion.

Why does there need to be a compulsion to upgrade? We upgrade our Operating Systems all the time and don't get me started on Office there's been more than a few of those over time. It's just that the upgrade of an ERP is a little different, it's often like doing the implementation all over again and in some cases it is actually the same as doing the implementation all over again. More so if you happen to be heavily modified or are utilising a quite niche ISV solution. Regardless of whether your system is vanilla, slightly modified or heavily modified the upgrade of the ERP will require a project. With all the wonderful things that come with it, Change Management, revised Training Materials, Gap Analysis and Process review with possible modification to name but a few. To go through all of this again there needs to be a reason and that reason needs to be compelling. With that in mind let's explore a few of those reasons.

Likely one of the main compulsions to upgrade at the moment is the support status of AX2012. R2 entered Extended Support back in 2018 and it's due to finish later this year. R3 on the other hand will still be Mainstream for most of this year with Extended Support planned out to 2023. What do we get for this support, primarily Hotfixes and Cumulative updates which allows us to present another couple of dates to consider. The latest build for AX2012 R2 was made available on 17th October 2018 for the latest CU you're going back a further 3 years to CU9 which came out on 24th September 2015. AX2012 R3 presents a similar story albeit more recent with the latest build being 28th February 2019 and CU13 being released on 20th April 2019. There is no expectation of any future builds for either product meaning if you've survived since April 2019 and your system still functions, is it safe to assume it'll continue to function for the next few years (or beyond) regardless of it's support status. It's not as though the impact of this reduction of updates is similar to the end of life of Windows 7 back in early 2020. In our world updates don't contain security patches, also even if there is an update there's no requirement to take it (Keep that in mind as well with D365, you have a limited amount of time to take the updates and they're much more regular than they were on AX2012). So is it really such a compulsion to change due to the support status?

Another likely compulsion may be directly related to your ongoing IT strategy, in particular the potential of moving to the Cloud and of course D365 is the Microsoft ERP Cloud solution. In order to address this one lets spend a little time discussing exactly what the Cloud is. Option A: The Cloud is a magical place where all your IT worries go away primarily run by three of the largest companies in the world (Microsoft, Amazon, Google). Option 2: The Cloud is simply renting someone else's hardware with some pretty exciting bells and whistles added on.

Now before I have a bunch CSPs jumping down my throat telling me that the Cloud is so much more than my simple definition, yes I know I'm simply trying to make a point and of course you're where these bells and whistles come from. Whereas regarding Option 1, that simply depends upon who you talk to.

Let's get back on topic, assuming you went for Option 2, how does that relate to AX2012 and my Cloud strategy. Glad you asked. Conceptually this is called a lift and shift where you literally lift your current environment and shift it to the cloud. Assuming you're using Remote Desktop Apps or Citrix to access your system the visibility of change to your user base by doing this is minimal, bordering on non-existent. They simply wouldn't be able to tell. So there you have it, if you have a cloud strategy or your onsite\datacenter hardware is coming to end of it's serviceable life and you are looking at not replacing the capital expense. Why not lift and shift your AX2012, especially if that's the only reason to upgrade and you really don't want to.

It's been interesting at times putting these articles together. Sometimes it feels a little like Dora the Explorer for adults, always three questions and occasionally the answers can be really difficult. Without further ado here is a third compulsion to upgrade. This is by no means a full and extensive list, a customer can be compelled to upgrade for all manner of reasons I am simply looking at what I believe may be a bit of a top 3.

I just want Software as a Service, other people have it and they speak highly of it. I simply just want someone else to look after keeping the system up to date, technical maintenance and essentially keeping the lights on. If I'm currently using AX2012 then the only way I know to achieve this is by upgrading to D365. I'll be honest, up until a couple of weeks ago I thought the same. I've recently come from a place where the maintenance burden could only really be described as onerous. There are a number of other words which could be used, but being a public forum let's stick with that.

Given we've been discussing compulsions, it was in many ways this discovery which compelled me to pen this piece. What I've seen in the past few weeks is that it is possible to turn AX2012 into a SaaS solution whether that solution is on-premise or you've already done your lift and shift. While there are a few hoops which need to be jumped through around code control and the like there's a way to make AX2012 basically hands off technically. So if your compulsion to upgrade to D365 is to have an SaaS solution you no longer have to as the technology exists to make AX2012 (and for that matter AX2009) SaaS solutions.

In conclusion I'd just like to clarify a couple of things. I am in no way anti-D365, in fact I adore the system, it's my bread and butter. What I am anti is the potential of customers being compelled to follow a path that they don't really want to or is simply unnecessary. The Consultant in me will always come up with the alternate option and that's not just in this instance, that's regarding pretty much everything. I just hope to have highlighted a number of reasons why if you really don't want, or need, to upgrade that there is actually no compelling reason you have to.

Thank you for reading, until next time at which time I will most likely be back to talking about System Performance.